The pulse beats ten and intermits;
God nerve the soul that ne'er forgets
In calm or storm, by night or day,
Its steady toil, its loyalty.
The pulse beats ten and intermits;
God shield the soul that ne'er forgets.
So tired, so weary,
The soft head bows, the sweet eyes close,
The faithful heart yields to repose.
- By Edgar Allan Poe
--
Do you believe in Destiny?
Chapter 29, Beloved Physician
--
Margo hadn't been able to fall asleep. Of course it was a bit because of the nausea, but it wasn't just that. Dom, hadn't returned yet and Kaylee and Kate she hadn't seen a sign of him. But since Kate was okay, Owen also, there was a chance that he would be that too.
And then Zidler, Bonnie and Jin had left, running after Eko who was stuck in some ravine. And that wouldn't take so long, would it? But yet they hadn't returned.
To say she was worried was an understatement.
She hung up the shirt on the washing line, smoothing it out while trying to keep her thoughts away from them. They would be all right. They had to be.
She saw something out of the corner of her eye. She swirled around. Her heart clenched in her chest when she saw Dom, and that boat guy, Desmond come out of the jungle.
She laughed, relief overtaking her and she took a step towards them.
But someone else was faster.
Kaylee threw her arms around Dom, almost knocking him off his feet. Margo stopped in her tracks, and Kate, still wounded and shouting when she talked, hugged Dom too.
That was when Margo understood what their return meant.
"Where's Jack? Allen?" She ran up to Desmond but he was still looking down at the ground. "Desmond, Desmond!"
He looked up, looking surprised when he saw her.
"What happened?"
Desmond opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud shout.
They both turned their heads to the sound. And Margo saw Zidler, Bonnie, Jin and… and Eko, Eko lifeless and obviously hurt from so far away. But her eyes were quickly back on Zidler. Zidler's dirty, tear streaked face.
She rushed over to his side. Ignoring whatever Bonnie was saying to her and she took is face in her hands. "Zidler, Zidler are you okay? Are you okay? All right… What happened?"
"Eko," Zidler mumbled. And he looked so tired, like he would collapse any second. So she held him, if he fell so would she.
--
"I'm no doctor," Bonnie said, "but he clearly got a fever."
Eko was lying in his tent, mumbling incoherent words and through his closed eyelids his eyes were moving fast. He was sweating and he was warm all over. They had patched him up the best they could, Sun had made some weird gunk out of her herbs and plants and was trying to give it to Eko, who just wouldn't swallow.
Sun was rapidly speaking Korean with Jin, and Bonnie's gaze went to Zidler, who was standing in the corner, staring at Eko with horror.
"Zidler, let's go outside," Bonnie said quietly. Zidler tore his gaze away from Eko and followed her out.
It was night, but most of the camp was up. Everyone returning, Kate, Eko… Desmond, Desmond with the news that more of their friends had been kidnapped, was enough to keep anyone sleepless.
"We – we need to save him." Zidler wasn't looking at her, but at a spot somewhere above her shoulder. Bonnie arched an eyebrow.
"We can't."
"We have to," he answered a bit childishly.
"We're no doctors, but Eko's strong, maybe he'll pull through it. But it would maybe help us if we knew what hurt him."
At that he looked up, and Bonnie continued, "What'd he say to you? When he was whispering you leant in. I know he said somethin'."
Zidler swallowed. "He said… 'You cannot…'"
Bonnie wrinkled her forehead. "You cannot what?"
"That's it," Zidler said quietly. "That's what he said. He passed out after that."
--
Charlie watched after Owen as she left to get water. Aaron whined in his arms.
"That's all right, little buddy. I'll go get you your bottle. If you're hungry that is, come on, give me a hint."
Aaron just continued to whine, and he wrinkled his face – the first sign that he was about to cry.
"All right, all right, no need to cry all over me," Charlie said gently, hurrying to get the bottle, if he could just remember where he'd left it…
"Are you looking for this, brother?" Desmond was holding the feeding bottle.
"Yes, thank you." Charlie smiled, taking it from him.
"Glad I could help," Desmond said, a little bitter.
Charlie looked up as Desmond started to leave. "We're not just gonna leave 'em out there, you know."
Desmond stopped and turned around. "I don't exactly see anyone of you going after them!" he shouted.
"Listen, mate. We're not abandoning them. It's not that we don't care, we do. We've have survived a bloody plane crash together!"
"I know," Desmond sighed, "I know. Sorry."
"It's all right," Charlie said in what he believed to be a comforting voice. "Just wait, I bet Bonnie's about to make a speech any sec –"
"Everyone!" Bonnie shouted, interrupting him. "Gather around! Yes, Neil I know you got the very important task of 'supervising' the traps but it can wait one minute!"
Charlie grinned, winked at Desmond. "What'd I say? Come on."
Bonnie stood by the dinner table. Her hair was pulled back in its usual ponytail. She hadn't changed her clothes, and they were sill stained from Eko's blood. Somehow she looked even more powerful that way.
When everyone was gathered around her, even little Ellie who stood alone (biting anyone who dared to try to hold her hand), Bonnie began to speak.
"As you've all very well have heard, even more of us have gotten kidnapped. Jack, Lori, Allen and Sean. Michael and Flor, two of us, betrayed them."
There were gasps from those who hadn't heard the last part and Bonnie's eyes almost flared in anger.
"Two of us. Two people who were on the plane. Who knew us, who knew them sold them out to the Others. And you think, after every damn thing we've been through together we would be able to trust each other." Bonnie shook her head.
"But let's not turn on our own people, okay? This just proves that we gotta be able to trust each other. It's not just learning how to fire a gun, how to set a trap and how we can survive a battle. It's also about learning to deal with all that comes with it, the emotions. What will you do if one of them holds a gun to your friend's head? Will you do as they say then? Will you sell us out too? If you get kidnapped, will you become one of them? Will you listen to their lies and forget that once upon a time they kidnapped a pregnant woman, scarred her until she remembered nothing, and then took her again? Obviously, the Others are bigger than us, got resources and who the hell knows, maybe they even got a nice set of houses somewhere on this island? And no matter how much we struggle, how much we fight. They are stronger than us."
Ellie made a small, sobbing noise and Kate tried to take her hand but she shoved it away.
"So we give up, we stay here and hope, hope that they won't take us, that they won't kill us. 'Cause there's nothing else we can do, right? Wrong. We got something they don't."
Kay frowned, confused. "What's that?"
"We've taken, what, three of them? That Karl guy, that Gale man and the other man in the hatch. And not one time, have any of the Others tried to free their own people. They have just left them to their fate, even when they planned to make the hatch man escape – it was two of us who did the work. We are different. We don't leave our people behind. We are not them! And, when the time is right, we'll get our people back. I promise you that. We can't be stronger than them, but we can be equal, so I suggest that anyone who can learns how to fight."
Ellie raised her hand.
"Anyone over five."
Ellie let her hand fall to her side.
Everyone was silent, no one made a move.
"So get to work then!" Bonnie shouted and they scattered.
--
It wasn't the best of traps, and Zidler was sure there was something wrong about it. The first clue was that it looked more like a penguin than those weird constructions Bernard has showed them.
"Ouch!" He rubbed the back of his head, pain spreading and he looked down at whatever had hit him… a mango. He turned around as fast as his hurt head would let him. "Who's there? You just hit me!"
"It's yooouuur suuuubcoooonscious," a drawled out voice whispered. "I aaam you basically, sooo listen to eeeevery wooord I'm saying… You aaaare the chosen one…"
"Margo!" Zidler whined. "Why did you throw a mango at me?"
Margo stepped out of her hiding place behind a tree. She rolled her eyes. "Because I'm hormonal."
"That was your excuse for taking all of my fish, for punching Frogurt, for throwing water at Libby, for –"
"It's a good excuse isn't it?" She smiled. She looked down at his trap. "Why are you building a penguin?"
"Because I like penguins, all right?" Zidler spat, turning away from her.
"Sorry," Margo said, all her laughter gone from her voice. "I was just wondering… Bonnie said… How are you?"
"Bonnie said 'how are you'?"
"No," Margo took a step forward, and her hand hovered just above Zidler's shoulder, like she was afraid to touch him but wanted to. "I said that."
"Eko's dying because of me," Zidler said quietly.
"No!" Margo said sharply, letting her hand fall to her side as she walked around to face him. "No. Some, polar bear, monster hurt him."
"I left him. I left him down there," he said in the same toneless voice, "I heard the sounds… I knew he was in trouble and all I did was to run away. So how is it not my fault?"
Margo shook her head. "Don't say that. Wasn't your fault. Eko's gonna be okay, okay?"
"He said something. He said something to me before he passed out and…" Zidler swallowed, looking away, trying not to cry in front of her. "He said I couldn't…" He looked at her again, his eyes full of tears. "I couldn't let…"
A scream sounded through the jungle. Margo blinked. "One of the traps!"
They darted through the trees until they arrived at a clearing, with one large tree in the middle, its branches stretching out, thick and wide above them.
In that tree, a man was hanging, his glasses barely just hanging on his nose.
He turned his light blue eyes to them, his smile somewhat askew since he was hanging upside-down.
"Hey," he said, his face flushing, "I'm Fred. Could you please help me down?"
----
Fred clumsily paid the cab driver, barely managing to get out his bags before he drove away.
The wharf was crowded, people shouted things from market stalls in a language he didn't understand. He swirled around as he was almost hit on by a green bus.
He looked up in awe at the big freighter. The Kahana. He took a better grip around his bags and crossed the narrow street.
"Hi," he said awkwardly to the woman with the manifest. "I'm Fred – Frederic Phelps."
The woman looked up, she had big brown eyes, then she looked down at the manifest again. A big grin spread on her face. And when she spoke it was with a thick Manchester accent, "Phelps, the botanist, yeah?"
Fred nodded shyly. "Yeah, uh, I guess."
"I'm Naomi, Naomi Dorrit." She frowned slightly and looked down. "Can't quite place your accent, says here that you're from the States."
"I – I lived in Australia for a long time."
She smiled again. "Then welcome aboard."
Fred nodded again, careful not to knock any of the crates and boxes over with his bags and stepped onboard the ship. He looked around the deck and wondered where he would go now.
"That one doesn't lie about his name."
Fred turned around and saw an Asian man, sitting on a pile of crates while eating an orange; he was clearly talking about him.
"S-sorry?"
"Don't waste your time on him," said a boy who was mopping the deck, Fred couldn't quite place his accent, but it sounded English-y. He brushed away a strand of black hair behind his ear and smiled. "Miles just likes to pretend he's special just because he can speak to de –"
The Asian man, Miles hit the boy over the head. "Go back to cleaning, Carrie"
"Cleaning," the boy muttered. "I've just arrived and they are already making me their slave."
"And you've already set a record in whining." A pretty black girl walked up to them. "Oh, hello," she said, smiling to Fred. "I'm Taylor. Croeso to the ship. I can help you to your berth." She took one of his bags with surprising ease.
"You learn her one word in Welsh and she uses it every time she can." The boy shook his head.
"Go back to mopping, Caradoc," Taylor said and Miles laughed.
----
"Look, Zidler," the girl said and held up something for the guy to see, "is this a satellite phone?"
"Yeah," the guy apparently called Zidler (he didn't remember anyone with the name Zidler from the manifest, not as first name anyway) took it from her, inspecting it. "It's broken, though."
"Guys, uh, could you let me down?" Fred pleaded, trying to look at them. But his vision was getting dizzy, and it was hard to fixate his eyes on something when he was rocking back and forth upside-down. "I don't – uh, think it's very good to hang like this."
"Do you know where Wendy is?" the girl asked sharply, squinting up at him.
"Who?"
"Then no."
"I know who Owen Chauncey is! Sort of," Fred said quickly, desperate to be let down. "And you must be the survivors, flight 815? I'm Frederic Phelps, I – I don't know why you have traps or who you think I am but I'm supposed to rescue you!"
"Good lie." The guy didn't even look up at him.
"Lie? No, I'm telling you the truth –"
"We got guns, you know," the girl said.
"And knives," the guy reminded her. "Sharp, sharp knives."
"And people are pretty pissed off –"
"– so they're gonna stand in line –"
"– to, well 'talk' to you."
"By 'talk' she means torture," the guy whispered. "So it would be kind of better for you if you just would tell the truth."
"I am!" Fred shouted. "I am telling the truth! I came here on a freighter, the Kahana, to – to help you! And I jumped out of the helicopter, ended up in a tree, met this girl with one blue eye and one green eye – Owen Chauncey and she took the phone and gave me another phone and then I walked around in circles and I'm thirsty and I was afraid to sleep 'cause when I sleep I sleepwalk and… and…"
They were both looking at him with raised eyebrows and a similar 'yeah, right' expression on their faces.
"Margo, Zidler?" They both turned around, but Fred unfortunately couldn't clearly see who they were looking at.
"Frogurt! What are you doing here?" Zidler shouted a little too loud.
"What the – you caught one of them? And Zidler, you know very well that I am the supervisor. And is that a satellite phone?"
--
"Dom," Kate said gently when she came up to his side. She could hear clear enough not to scream anymore. "Dom."
Dom was just staring out in the horizon, completely still, not even blinking.
"Dominic Austen!"
He turned his head to her startled, and then immediately looked away. "Oh, um, Kate."
"Why are you staring out at the ocean?"
"Ocean?" Dom said, still staring at the waves. He frowned a little, like he hadn't known he was doing it.
"Are you all right?" Kate asked. "You've… What happened after the hatch?"
Dom blinked. "Nothing, uh, nothing. Just woke up alone."
Kate raised an eyebrow, smiling a little. "Without any clothes?"
"Not for the first or last time."
There was a bit of the old Dom she knew, and Kate let herself smile fully. "I'm just not used to seeing you gaze out at the sea, wistfully."
"I'm not staring 'wistfully'," Dom said, clearly offended. He looked down. "How're your legs?"
Kate looked down too, nodding. "Good."
"Wanna tell me what hurt you?" Dom asked seriously.
"I just woke up, like you, but with clothes on." Dom rolled his eyes at her words and Kate laughed.
"I'm feeling better now," she said, taking a step forward so that her feet were in the water. "I'm thinking of going for a swim."
She was too busy looking out at the waves to notice that Dom's smile was gone, and that he was staring at her with wide eyes.
"I… I…" He cleared his throat. "Maybe you should wait, you were hurt and…" He took a deep breath. "Just think we should stick around. Bonnie's speech was kind of terrifying, and with Eko dead…"
"Eko's not dead, Dom," Kate said carefully, seeing that weird look in his eyes again that he'd had when he was gazing out at the ocean, "and since when was taking a swim bad for the community?"
"Just…" Dom looked sad, honestly sad which only made Kate even more confused. "Just don't go for a swim today, okay?"
--
Kaylee immediately grabbed one of the rifles when Margo, Zidler, Neil and an unknown guy entered the camp.
She aimed the weapon at his head, stopping all of them in their tracks.
"I'm not going to shoot you," she told Margo, Zidler and Neil and they all sighed with relief.
"He got stuck in one of the traps, he says he's from Naomi's freighter," Margo informed her.
"Naomi?" the unknown guy said eagerly, looking from Margo to Zidler through his glasses. "She was here? She was with me, she disappeared and –"
"Who's he?" Kay heard Libby said and more people were starting to gather around. She was still holding the rifle raised in the air.
"I'm getting Bonnie," Hurley said and hurried away.
"Who are you?" Kay asked the guy sternly.
"He said his name was Frederic Phelps," Margo piped.
"He had a satellite phone on him." Neil held it up for everyone to see. "Obviously he was the one to steal it days ago."
"Steal? No, no, Owen, that girl gave it to me!" Phelps yelled.
"Owen went to the caves to get water," Charlie said thoughtfully.
"What's going on here?"
Kay looked over her shoulder and saw Bonnie stalk towards them with big steps, a gun in her hand.
"It's one of the Others," Neil told her. "I caught him."
Margo and Zidler both looked aghast at him. "We caught him."
"I built the trap –"
"But we –"
"Shut up!" Bonnie shouted. "Frederic Phelps? Really. Did you know what we once caught a guy who said his name was that? And he certainly didn't look anything like you. Lock him up, we gotta find out if he's telling the truth."
"The truth?" Phelps yelled. "Why wouldn't I be telling the truth? I have been looking for you, the survivors from the plane crash." He looked around at their faces. "Do – do you know someone named –"
"Say one more word of your lie and I will shoot you," Bonnie threatened, waving with the gun in front of his face. "Lock him up in the cage."
----
´"I want to see the captain!" Fred shouted again.
"The captain is busy," the man outside the captain's stateroom sneered.
"I have to see him now!" Fred closed his fists, trying to stop himself from punching the guy in the face. He had to control his anger, because if he did hit the man, Omar, he would smash Fred into small pieces. "I don't bloody care if he's busy! I have to speak with him! Now! In this second, not later!"
"Leave now or –"
The door opened, and Captain Gault peered out from his cabin. "Let him in."
The man said warningly, "Captain –"
"He was disturbing my sleep, so let him in so he stops screaming."
Captain Gault's weathered face showed that he was used to being out on the sea, and since Fred first met him he'd had instant respect for him. And any other time he wouldn't dare to do this, to face him alone. But this wasn't any other time.
The Captain sat down behind his desk, charts spread out in a mess. "So what is your reason for screaming like a lunatic, Phelps?"
"Flight 815." Fred stared at him, but the Captain didn't even look surprised.
"What about it?"
"I was told, when I was recruited here that – that the place we were going to, that there was survivors from the plane there. And then, today, I find out that Oceanic 815 has been found in a trench under the sea, with all three hundred twenty-four passengers dead. So… explain that."
The Captain was silent for a moment, and then he sighed deeply. "You weren't lied to. The wreckage found, was fake. Do you understand what kind of resources and manpower go into pulling a feat of that magnitude? There were bodies down there, sure, but they weren't of the passengers of the real flight. So where would you get so many bodies? How would you cover that up? That is just one of the many reasons we want Benjamin Linus."
Fifteen minutes later, after a lot of yelling and embarrassment over said yelling. The Captain got tired of him and threw him out. The guard wasn't there anymore, but Taylor, holding a mop in one hand and a book in the other. She was reading it intently.
Fred honestly wondered if either Caradoc or Taylor actually ever did any work.
"I'm on a break," Taylor said, like she'd read his thoughts. She slammed the book shut. "You just ran out of the mess hall, looking all upset. What's going on?"
"I don't think you would understand."
She curled her lips up in a small smile. "I'm sixteen, Fred, not an idiot. If something's wrong you can tell me."
Fred supposed he could. "They found Flight 815."
"I've heard." She tilted her head to the side. "Doesn't explain why you screamed at everyone and everything."
"My friend…" He huffed. "It's… it's not that important, really."
Taylor took the book under her arm. She took a step forward, taking his hand. He was too surprised to pull away.
"It's ok –" She flinched away from him like she'd been burned, her eyes widening. She gasped and the book fell to the floor. "I have to go," she said without looking at him. She hurried down the corridor and out of sight.
Fred bent down to the ground and picked up the book she'd left behind, Marianne Dreams.
----
The cage was made of wood, and Fred easily snapped one of the wooden bars with his hands.
"I think I could escape easily," he'd said.
"Yes, but I would shoot you," the blonde woman had said, leaving him in there. Knees drawn up to his chest and head bowed since the cage was very small.
Nobody had questioned him, yet, and he guessed they were discussing the best methods of torturing him. It made him slightly panicky, but it was kind of cool in a way, like in the comic books the hero would always endure horrid torture but stay loyal to his friends and always break out in the end.
But, he thought with some reluctance, he was telling the truth. And they didn't believe it. So there was nothing to protect or hide.
"You got some serious trust issues," Fred pointed out to the woman with the red legs guarding him. He'd heard a guy call her Kay, but he didn't remember her name being in the manifest either, just like Zidler and Margo. And he had a rising feeling that meant that these people were not the survivors from Flight 815.
Though their camp was practically built out of plane debris. And that he recognized that blonde woman as the famous Bonnie McQueen. So maybe… they were all aliens, yes that was the answer.
Aliens with gigantic trust issues.
Fred peered out on the beach through the bars, but it was a bit difficult to see, with being curled up like that and all.
"Hey!" Margo knelt down in front of the cage.
"Margo," Kay said in a warning tone.
"He's human, he needs water." Margo removed the cork from the bottle.
"Yes," Fred agreed, "I – I do."
"Here." She handed him the bottle. It was in a very awkward angle he drank from it.
"Thank you."
She smiled and stood up. He noticed that she held a hand over her belly, and he frowned.
"Are you – are you really from the freighter?" she asked carefully.
Fred was trying to nod. "Yeah."
"You must wonder what happened to Nao –"
"Margo!" Kay said sharply. "We aren't supposed to talk to…" Her voice trailed off, and he heard Margo gasp.
"What's – what's going on?" He tried to look out again, almost dropping his glasses in the process.
The rifle hit the sand and suddenly the guard, Kay was darting down the beach the fastest she could, Margo not too late after.
"Kate!" she heard them shout, and even though it was a bit difficult to see, he could see that there were people gathering at the edge of the water, some even in it. "KATE!"
Someone was drowning, he realized with horror. Someone was drowning.
Breaking out of the cage was easy, it was like breaking twigs. Nobody noticed his escape immediately, as they were all down by the sea.
But then Margo turned around, and she saw him running towards them. She looked scared, shocked but she didn't say one thing.
He saw a man (that somehow reminded him of Bruce Banner, before he turned green) carry a woman out of the water. Kay immediately ran up to them, helping him lay down the woman on the ground.
She wasn't breathing.
"The prisoner escaped!" someone shouted, but he ignored them as he made his way over to the lifeless woman's side.
Someone tried to pull him away, but he only had his eyes the woman, her face was freckled, her eyes closed and she looked so similar to the man who was desperately trying to breathe life back in her again.
"I – I can help!" he shouted. "You're doing it wrong – you – you're breathing air into her stomach – let me help!"
He pulled himself free and knelt down by her side. "I can help," he said to the man, "please, let me help her."
The man looked up; his green eyes stared into his. "Save her," he growled.
Fred nodded. He tilted her head up, hoping he had learned CPR correctly.
Further up in the now empty camp, Eko crawled out of his tent, mumbling, his eyes flickering but somehow not seeing a thing. He struggled up on his legs, stumbling into the jungle.
----
Not knowing what was going on was the worst part. The communication to and from the boat had been down for four days now, and they continued to say it was just a small malfunction every time Fred asked them.
"Let me tell you dear friend," Caradoc said with a grin, his mop forgotten by his side as he leaned against the railing. "I was down there, cleaning up some mess since somebody had apparently thought it was fun to drink coffee there when we were in that bloody storm, and all the wires are cut into two. It's not some malfunction or whatever they call it. It's sabotage."
Taylor snorted. "I really don't believe that."
"You can believe what you want," Caradoc responded, "but it's the best theory we got. Better than aliens did it."
"I thought it was a great theory," Fred mumbled, he wasn't paying too much attention now; since the conversation was going from interesting to Taylor-and-Caradoc banter (he would have to come up with a better name for that.)
Someone whistled, and Fred looked up.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing some work?" Lapidus shouted to Taylor and Caradoc.
They both rolled their eyes instantly; something they thought was very witty when they did that together.
Fred decided to leave them to their duties; he wouldn't want to face the wrath of Lapidus himself. Not that there was much of a wrath, but there was something about the man that terrified him. Caradoc said it was because Frank always was drunk.
He took a long detour around him, and found himself falling over someone.
"My cards…" the someone said in a broken voice. "Oh, no… my cards… no."
Fred, with the little dignity he had left, made it up to his feet. "Daniel, sorry, I didn't mean to fall for – I mean over you." He bent down and picked up the scattered cards, it was good that the wind wasn't blowing hard today. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Daniel said, almost in a whisper.
Fred remembered what Charlotte had told him earlier, ('be nice to Dan, I got a gun and I am strong enough to throw anyone in the water.')
"What are you doing?" Fred asked as Daniel placed the cards in three neat stacks.
"Remembering," Daniel mumbled, "Charlotte... she was helping me but…" He frowned. "She… she had to go, Keamy…" He looked down.
"Remembering? With the cards?"
He nodded.
"I can help you," Fred offered, sitting down on one of the boxes. "I'll show you three cards, and you're gonna remember them, in order… or something, right?"
Daniel was silent for a moment, then he nodded again.
"All right."
At the best, Daniel could remember two – in the wrong order.
"You're probably wondering why I'm here," Daniel said sadly, "when I can barely remember who I am. I shouldn't remember physics, I shouldn't…"
"I know you're smart, genius and I... uhm, I know," Fred said, but he would be lying if he said he hadn't thought that.
"Why are you going to the island?" Daniel blurted out, and the complete change in tone caught Fred off guard.
"Uh… I… I was offered a part of the science team –"
"No, no… why?"
Fred sighed. "I'm looking for someone. I think she's there. Why are you?"
"Because," Daniel said, "I think it will fix me. And it's king, the king of hearts."
Fred smiled when he held up the card for Daniel to see, it was the right one.
----
"I should have listened to Dom," Kate groaned. She was lying on her back in the tent, Kaylee on her side.
"What do you mean?"
Kate closed her eyes, feeling a headache coming in. "He told me not to swim today."
"Did… did you go into the water just because he said you shouldn't?" Kay was used to the siblings impulses, but this time it wasn't an 'I dare you to eat that green thing.' Kate hadn't been breathing, if it hadn't been for Phelps…
"It's what siblings do, and he was acting strange, Kay. And what bad could a swim do?"
"You could drown,"Kay said, "which you almost did. And after you got hurt…" She shook her head. "How's your hearing?"
Dom was standing outside, just standing there with his hands in his pockets, water still dripping off his hair. He'd been there when Kate had woken up, but he hadn't said much. Everyone was busy with their own problems, the kidnappings, where to lock Fred in now, find Eko… but Margo had noticed, she had noticed that Dom was different now.
"How is she?" Margo asked.
Dom blinked, turning to her. "Who?"
Margo frowned. "Kate." As Dom's expression continued to be blank, she continued, "Your sister. Dom… are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, should…" And he walked away, just like that, continuing to mumble.
Maybe Charlie was right, maybe some parts of their brains had gone with the hatch.
Margo turned around and saw Zidler walk towards her fast, she smiled a little. "Hey…"
"Bonnie found a trail of blood leading into the jungle," Zidler said quickly. "She's no tracker, but a trail of blood should be easy to follow, right?" He laughed, almost hysterical. "But how could he even walk when he's bleeding out?"
"Zidler…"
"Bernard learned some things from Eko, before Eko was hurt of course so he's gonna tag along and –"
"You're not going, are you?" Margo asked him loudly, putting her hands on her hips.
Zidler blinked. "Um… yeah."
"Zidler!" Margo whined. And he sighed.
"Well, I have to! It's my responsibility!"
"How is it your responsibility?" she asked, taking a step closer to him.
"It was I – I was the one who left him there! If I had stayed –" Zidler looked down, blinking hard, "maybe… I have to, okay?"
Margo was silent for a moment, then she nodded. "Okay," she said quietly to his surprise. "Be careful, don't shoot yourself and – be careful."
"You be careful too."
Margo leaned in and kissed him softly. "Okay," she whispered when she pulled away.
Zidler smiled and she couldn't help but smile back. He touched her belly, and the words he said weren't meant for her, "Bye." He straightened his back, now speaking to her, "I'll come back."
--
Fred glared at anyone who dared to look his way. He was happy that the woman, Kate, was alive but he hadn't even gotten 'thank you', and right now they were deciding whether to lock him up or shoot him on the spot.
"I'm telling you the truth." He was getting tired of those words. This was really not how he had expected to find the survivors, there had been a lot more gratitude in his head, and the team had been with him. He hoped they would find him, but with that girl Owen stealing his phone it was more likely they would find her first.
"Why - why would I have saved her life if I wanted to – to 'kill' all of you? I'm telling you the truth, I promise, please!" he shouted, but it didn't seem that anybody listened.
He glared at the Chinese or Korean man pointing a gun at him, and he glared just as angry back. Fred flinched; maybe he was a samurai or a ninja or something.
"I wonder why he was tlaking about Owen. Maybe he killed her!" one of them shouted.
"We can't make a decision without Bonnie," he heard one of them say.
"Yes we can," a bald man answered, much louder. "Bonnie said she was no dictator, and we all have to make decisions. So I say we vote, do we believe him, or not? And if we don't, what will we do with him?"
----
Daniel was nice, weird but nice, and he didn't pry too much on the very weird things Fred did himself. So when Fred stole one of the broken computers Daniel said nothing. He even hid all of Fred's equipment whenever someone came into the berth they shared.
Fred had shared his thoughts with Daniel. Told him how he didn't believe there was anybody sabotaging the communication, but that for some reason, Captain Gault and all the others didn't want them to have any contact with the outside word.
Daniel barely understood, but he was okay with it.
"I think – yes, I got it!" Fred shouted.
"Were… weren't you a… botanist? Or an engineer…" came the lazy voice of Daniel Faraday.
"I'm brilliant!" Fred stared at the strange, radio-like thing he'd built.
"Botanist, brilliant, is it the same?" Daniel walked over the room to his side and sat awkwardly down beside him.
"I… I got contact with something…" Fred frowned, leaning closer to the computer, device, he wasn't sure what to call it really. "I'm not good with this, but this computer – thing-y is now connected with another one… I think," he added in a low voice at the end. "So, maybe… I think I could contact someone on the other end."
"How did you learn all of this?" Daniel asked slowly.
"I…" Fred blushed. "I wanted to do this kind of things, when I was a kid, I – I read a lot of comic books, and… I watched Star Trek."
"Ah, Star Trek."
Fred listened intently, there were some crackling coming from the device, but it was low, incoherent. "Wait, I think I heard something – Dhar… Dharma…"
Daniel suddenly stood up, walking across the room to get his bag, taking up something from it. He quickly rushed back, holding his journal. "Dharma… Dharma…"
He looked up from the pages, his eyes big. "We need Charlotte."
Charlotte's hair color matched her red face after she'd yelled at Fred for eight minutes for being an absolute idiot. Then she'd gently asked Daniel if Fred has brainwashed him. When Daniel said he hadn't, she agreed to help them.
"It's empty down there now, but almost all of the communications are down, don't know if it'll do any good," Charlotte said, leading them down the corridor. She rested a hand on the door, looking at Daniel. "Just be careful, all right? And if you get contact with the island, tell me. I don't like it when people use me like some kind of chess piece."
Fred and Daniel nodded and she opened the door. "Be quick."
Inside the radio room almost all of the cables were cut, but it wasn't that that Fred noticed first. It was the calendar hanging on the wall.
"They disappeared the twenty-second," he whispered. "The plane."
"The computer is not working." Daniel took the backpack off Fred's shoulder since he was just staring mindlessly at the date.
Fred came back to life and turned around, Daniel was placing the computer next to the other one on the table, (he called it computer or device, but it was a weirdly built transmitter, it would work the same, but it certainly looked like a big chunk of metal than anything else.)
"If we can connect these two…" Fred mumbled, but Daniel was already getting two wires, one step ahead of him. That was something that was fascinating about Daniel, when it came to talking, when it came to doing the normal things he was clueless. But as soon as it had to do with knowledge, physics, science he wasn't clear – but it was like an inbuilt mechanism inside of him that knew exactly what to do.
On the other computer's screen a blinking, green dot appeared.
"What did you do?" Fred asked, excited.
"I connected it with the closest source," Daniel explained, missing his point, "… it's the island, Fred, we are near. But too far away," he said sadly at the end.
"Is there someone on the other end?"
Daniel shrugged. "I don't know."
"Well, thank you, Dan." Fred pressed a button on the keyboard, typing the letter H.
e – l – l – o - ?
Daniel gave him a weird look.
"You have to start somewhere," Fred defended himself. Nobody answered, and impatiently he typed in: Is there someone there?
Who is this?
"Someone answered!"
Fred typed: Who is this?
I asked you first
"What if…" Dan said, "what if it's someone here?"
"You said it was from the island."
"Yes… don't… don't tell…"
Fred nodded, typing: My name is Frederic Phelps. Where are you?
I'm on an island.
Fred gasped. You are on the island? Are you a survivor of flight 815?
Yes. Where are you?
I'm on a freighter.
The door flew open. "Someone's coming!" Charlotte hissed. "Come on!"
With one look at each other Daniel and Fred hurried to remove the evidence. Fred put the computer in his bag and they quickly left the room.
"Hey, Taylor!" they could hear Charlotte say too loud, close by but out of view.
"You know my name?"
"What are you doing here?"
Fred and Daniel began to walk quietly down the other end of the corridor.
"I'm cleaning."
Later, Fred was lying in his bed; his eyes open though it was night. He could hear Daniel snore lightly. But Fred was too occupied thinking of the little contact he'd had with the people on the island to sleep.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door; it opened just a second later.
"Captain wants y'all up on the deck! RIGHT NOW!" And whoever it had been left, leaving the door open.
Of course Daniel hadn't woken up.
Fred and he arrived quickly. The air was chilly and the wind was blowing hard, Fred looked around, he could see Charlotte, Lapidus, Naomi, the blonde scary girl, Milou, and a bunch of other people. But it wasn't everyone in the crew.
In front of them Captain Gault stood, glaring furiously at them.
"It has come under my knowledge," he shouted, "that someone has been trying to transmit a signal off this boat. Now, since all the communication equipment has been destroyed, I say that's quite an achievement."
Daniel had his mouth open in surprise, and Fred was so glad he was standing in the shadows so no one could see the look of horror on his face.
"As you all very well know, since people are damn gossips, we got a culprit on this boat. It's not that we don't want you to be able to contact your families, friends if you got 'em. But orders are orders and right now those orders are to not get involved unless I say so. I brought you all up here because you are the ones with enough, small intelligence to be able to do this kind of thing. And if I find out, that any of you, has been trying to contact the outside world again…"
----
"Eko's a good guy," Bernard said for the tenth time since they had started to trek through the jungle. "He's a priest, he is hard on himself. When we came here… he first took on a vow of silence."
"Why?" Bonnie asked him.
"He felt that would give him redemption, I guess."
"For what?" Zidler was trailing after them, trying hard to keep up.
"He… uh," Bernard almost looked embarrassed, "he killed two of them."
Bonnie stared at him in bewilderment. "What kind of priest was he?"
"I don't know," Bernard answered her honestly. "But I know that wherever he is going, whatever he is doing – it's for a reason."
--
"We're near!" Kim shouted, somehow, it was only her who had been able to stay chirpy the whole way back to the camp, even though it was she who had been through the worst. "Can't wait to get a shower in the hatch, don't care if it's Frogurt's shift I'm having it!"
Fox managed a faint smile, but Andrea only grimaced, going a little faster over the sand.
Soon the camp came into view, and Kim started to wave her hands in the air, shouting things like 'we're back' and 'we're alive.'
Libby saw them first; she wrapped Kim into a tight hug, then Andrea. Hurley got to Fox first.
"Glad you're okay, dude."
"Jack, Allen, Lori they didn't –"
"We know," Libby said sadly, "Michael and Flor… it was a trap. Desmond came back and told us. "
Kim crossed her arms to stop anyone else form hugging her too, biting her lip. Andrea watched her, knew that talking about them being taken triggered memories she would rather forget.
"What more has happened?" Andrea asked as they walked the last bit back.
"A lot," Hurley said. "The hatch exploded, sky went all purple, Eko's missing and this guy, Frederic Phelps, says he's from the freighter."
"Freighter? Where is he?" She looked at Fox, and saw that his face had gone pale.
"Phelps?" Fox said before Hurley could answer her. "F-Frederic Phelps?"
"Yeah, right over there, we're thinking of taking him to the caves…" Hurley's voice trailed off, as all the three of them with renewed strength ran over to the group of people, and the guy with the gun pointed at his head.
The guy looked up when they reached him. And Andrea wanted to ask him so many things, but most of all she wanted to hurt him, if he really was one of the others she wanted to hurt him like they had hurt them.
"Are y-you Frederic Phelps?" Fox asked quickly.
Hadn't they already established that fact?
The guy nodded, looking frightened at the sight of them.
Kim was just staring at him; Andrea had no idea what she was thinking. But her gaze flickered nervously from Fox to him.
"He's n-not an Other."
"Of course he is!" Neil yelled.
"No," Fox said firmly, "he's n-not. He's telling the t-truth."
"Dude, you've been here for like… four seconds, how'd you know?" Hurley asked.
"I… he –"
"I believe him," Kim said quickly, startling all of them. "I think he's from the freighter. Look at him, he's no Other."
Andrea glared at her. "Kimika –"
"Andrea," Kim snapped back.
The guy's eyes widened. "Andrea?" he said carefully, "Andrea Widmore?"
"Yes," Andrea replied slowly.
"Your sister – Penelope, Penelope Widmore – she sent us!" Fred shouted. "Please, believe me."
Everyone was looking at Andrea, suddenly expecting her to make the decision.
She decided they should vote.
----
Fred had already come up with loads of excuses in case someone was already down there in the radio room, and he bet there was security there now. But he had to at least try to communicate with the people on the island again.
When he came into the corridor, he saw someone disappear around the corner on the other end. The door was opened to the radio room, and he couldn't help but to be curious on what was on the other side.
The radio room was even worse off than before, a machine crackled and a spark flew from it and he took a step back. Everything looked like it was beyond repair; it wasn't just the cutoff wires, all the equipment was smashed into pieces.
He needed to get out of there.
He turned around, stepping over the threshold. He tripped; fell on his face on the hard floor.
"Phelps?"
Fred struggled up on his feet. No, no it was the Captain. And the room – the room he'd just come out of – they were gonna think he was…
"I didn't think it was you," Captain Gault told him later as he closed the door to Fred's prison.
----
When Owen reached the top of the hill, she made a loud gasp. It felt like she had been walking endlessly hill up and hill down, avoiding the jungle and keeping close to the clearings. Thirsty, tired and hungry – and her body still ached from the whole caves situation.
But when she saw the big radio tower at the top of the hill, she knew there must be some reason for her suffering.
Yeah, she had gotten pretty crazy with hunger.
"Cool," she breathed, stumbling forward in the dark until she reached the door. It said CAUTION. And maybe she should keep out, but it was night now and she really didn't want to sleep on mud in the jungle.
She opened the door, stepping into the small bunker.
"Iteration, one, six…"
It was a transmission, a French speaking woman, sounding frantic and scared was speaking but Owen had no idea what she was saying. There was no way she would be able to sleep with that playing all the time.
"What is it sending?"
Owen froze, hearing a voice coming from the outside. She moved closer to the door, peering outside the small spring, but it was dark and she couldn't see clearly. She'd recognized that voice.
"Nothing, we should go –"
"Shouldn't we investigate – oh, it's one of those Other-secrecy things, right?" It was Wendy's voice. Owen's eyes widened. She remembered the vision, the 'please.'
She didn't hear the boy answer, so he must have nodded or shook his head.
"We should continue on, I think I know the way to the beach from here."
She heard their steps fade away, she was awfully curious to know what'd happened, but she had more important things to do.
Silently she sneaked out off the bunker, hurrying off into the direction of the jungle, away from the radio tower.
--
They said they believed him. But they weren't going to do anything else, find the rest of the team, ask him more questions until Bonnie came back.
So they left him alone by one of the bonfires, and he could hear them whisper about him, knowing they didn't trust him at all. But that they still desperately wanted to believe that he was going to rescue them.
"Do you want a blanket?" Fred looked up and saw Margo; she was smiling slightly, a kind expression on her face.
He didn't answer, but she dropped it on him anyway. He pulled it off his head, chuckling a little.
"I really do hope we are getting rescued," she said, a hand on her belly. "I hope we all do."
"I am telling the truth."
She smiled wider, but there was still some sadness in her eyes. "I do hope so. Since I'm pregnant and all."
She sat down beside him, staring at him. "You don't look so surprised."
"I just kind of sensed it." It had been kind of obvious, too. "Same thing when my best friend got pregnant too." He took a deep breath, this was it. "Is there… is there a survivor called Florence Bluth with you?"
Margo's smile fell, and she moved slightly away from him. "Why do you want to know that?"
"Because she's the main reason I came to this island in the first place."
--
Author's Notes: I am awesome at procrastinating. TV Tropes is a dangerous place no human being shall enter, or cat.
Thank you so much for your reviews, and music recommendations, thank you guys so much! You really have no idea how much your reviews mean to me, thank you!
So, yeah. That's not all you will see from the freighter, obviously. So, this chapter introduced Caradoc Llywellyn submitted by Key the Metal Idol, Taylor Smith-Lee submitted by DiorNicole, two awesome characters.
Namaste.